The Last X

Having been unceremoniously thrown into the mission world, he glanced around at the tidy cubicle he was in and the graded music sheets piled around him before looking down at his slender pale arms and fumbling around for a mirror.

A short bell tone rang, and the system introduced, [Host, as your first advanced mission, the system has chosen the simplest setting. Please receive the world's synopsis now, and keep in mind that the host must act within a reasonable range of the original body's character.]

"En, got it," Chen Yu nodded absentmindedly as he quickly processed the information provided. This was a standard 21st century campus setting, with an older teacher as the female lead and a precocious student male lead. "Not bad, system, somewhat of a backwater, but it shouldn't be too difficult for someone like me who's received who knows how many degrees while waiting to appear as Passerby B," Chen Yu offered a backhanded compliment, slyly complaining about the tens of hundreds of tedious years spent in the introductory phase missions.

[The system accepts the host's praise. However, it would like to issue a friendly reminder that the host may wish to continue reading the data, as your degrees are irrelevant to your character.]

Now curious, Chen Yu turned back to the story. The female lead Liu Yao was currently in her fourth year working as a music teacher at an elite boarding high school, and her cello skills had already caught the interest of the headmaster for a while now. As the two were about to declare their feelings, the rich second-generation male lead Nangong Wei transferred in as a sophomore and was gradually attracted to the female lead's heartfelt care for her students as well as her resistance to his charms. Naturally, Liu Yao soon fell for Nangong Wei's passionate proposals, leaving the headmaster only able to regret that he hadn't formalized his relationship with Liu Yao earlier.

Meanwhile, a new student teacher Shao Li also entered the school as an assistant to Liu Yao, but he was later jointly driven out by the headmaster and Nangong Wei after they proved that he had tried to harm Liu Yao's hands to destroy her music career. After this threat was resolved, the headmaster realized that it was only Liu Yao's safety and happiness that mattered and sanctioned the relationship between the teacher female lead and student male lead. After graduation, Nangong Wei successfully took over and led his family enterprise to the top of the business world. With his support, Liu Yao speedily became famous worldwide for her touching music performances.

Chen Yu automatically disregarded the gaping plot holes, such as how a student-teacher, underage-adult romance was openly accepted. Through his past experience, he had already recognized the immense power of plot armor and the protagonists' golden finger. Instead, Chen Yu focused on the fact that as soon as he reviewed this cast list, he instinctively knew that he was now in the body of Shao Li.

"System," he growled, "didn't you say I would be playing more important roles now? Isn't this just another cannon fodder job ah? The whole point of Shao Li's existence is to make Headmaster Feng endorse Liu Yao's relationship with Nangong Wei!" In fact, it wasn't a big deal to Chen Yu, who had long ago mastered all kinds of musical instruments, to be occupying an allegedly villainous music assistant teacher. It was actually perhaps more satisfying for his manipulative personality to upend his predicted future and outshine the supposedly talented female lead. But he simply couldn't miss the opportunity to ridicule the system.

[Host, as a named antagonist, you are involved at a much deeper level than your previous minor characters. You can now also change the plot through your actions as much as you'd like within your role's specifications.]

Chen Yu lazily hummed in response, somewhat bored by the system's straitlaced defense, and seriously considered instead whether he should seduce the male lead in order to conduct a dog blood drama.

Having been ignored by its host, the system added, [As the host seems to find the advanced course difficult despite having experienced numerous practice missions, you will be granted a golden finger of your own. The host may freely alter one aspect of your physique per mission. The system wishes the host happy travels.]

Somehow, the toneless system managed to express faint anxiety, but how could Chen Yu pay attention to this anomaly? He was simply shocked that the system actually provided real assistance. So all he'd had to do to get benefits this whole time was to bully the system? Interrupted by this discovery, Chen Yu's plans to take advantage of Nangong Wei receded, to be replaced by the memories of the original owner.

Having grown up in an orphanage, Shao Li was a timid, introverted type, who only knew how to express himself through music. In order to share his love of music, he had painstakingly overcome his fears to take on this student teacher job. Smirking, Chen Yu rhythmically tapped his finger on the desk. How could such a shy child seek the limelight by attacking Liu Yao? Then what actually happened was really not a mystery.

It seems that at this time, Shao Li had been working for a few weeks, and the main characters had all met. Currently, Liu Yao was beginning to pay attention to Nangong Wei after having found out about his family's prestige, but she had still agreed to have a cozy dinner with the headmaster in his office. Naturally, the task of marking the hundreds of music theory tests was thrown to Shao Li.

"Such a fool to take on such a hassle, it's time to take a look at what you look like," Chen Yu murmured as he finally pulled out a mirror from Liu Yao's desk drawer. Turning his head from left to right, he assessed, "Hm, not bad. It's enough to work with."

In the reflection was a delicate face with arched eyebrows and long, fan-like eyelashes. Below the boy's right eye was a distinctive tear-shaped mole, just as with Chen Yu's original face. The pale pink lips and light brown hair combined together to form a gentle like water countenance. Shao Li's stature was rather petite and slim, and because he rarely went outside, the whole body was pale, except for a large pink scar on his back.

As Chen Yu was lifting his clothes and twisting around and around to catalogue his new appearance, a chuckle suddenly sounded. Somewhat startled, Chen Yu quickly smoothed down his shirt and glanced up to find a tall man standing in the doorway. With the fading light from the sunset streaming in from behind him, his features were unclear. Only his gleaming eyes and white teeth flashed in the shadows.